An online mention of a business’s name, address, and phone number, commonly found in directories and local listings.
Consistent citations help support local search trust and business discovery.
Short and sweet:
An online mention of a business’s name, address, and phone number, commonly found in directories and local listings.
Consistent citations help support local search trust and business discovery.
See also: NAP Consistency, Local SEO, Google Business Profile
In local SEO, a citation is any online mention of a business’s name, address, and phone number, commonly referred to as NAP, whether or not it includes a link back to the business’s website. Search engines use the consistency of these mentions across directories, review sites, and social profiles as a trust signal when deciding how to rank a business in local search results. Even small inconsistencies, like an abbreviated street suffix on one site and the full word on another, can quietly weaken this signal over time.
A local coffee shop’s listing on Yelp, complete with its exact address and phone number, functions as a citation that helps Google confirm the business actually exists at that location.
Directories like Yellow Pages and Foursquare are common sources of these mentions, and inconsistent phone numbers across them can quietly hurt a business’s local search rankings.
A dentist’s office might build a presence across dozens of sites, from Healthgrades to the local Chamber of Commerce directory, reinforcing the same name, address, and phone number everywhere it appears.
